John Davis (writer)
John Davis was a British writer who, despite never obtaining American citizenship, deeply engaged with American life and history throughout his two-decade residence in the United States. Born in Salisbury, England, he embarked on a global journey at a young age, working for the East India Company before settling in America. Initially employed to translate works by American authors, Davis shifted to writing his own content, with mixed success in his early novels. He achieved significant acclaim with his travel memoir, *Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States* (1803), which resonated with European audiences eager for insights into the burgeoning nation.
Davis’s notable works include *The First Settlers of Virginia* (1805), a historical romance about Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, and *The Post-Captain* (1805), an adventurous sea tale. However, despite his writing accomplishments, he faced financial difficulties, prompting a return to England in 1817, where he became a bookseller and continued to write. His later works include an epic poem, *The American Mariners* (1822), which reflects his enduring affection for America. Today, Davis's legacy primarily rests on his early successful publications that capture the spirit of the United States in its formative years.
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John Davis (writer)
Writer
- Born: August 6, 1774
- Birthplace: Salisbury, England
- Died: April 24, 1854
- Place of death: Worcester, Massachusetts
Biography
Although John Davis was a British subject who never became an American citizen, he nevertheless adopted the United States as his own country. He lived in the young republic for over twenty years, and almost every word he wrote during his long career focused on some aspect of American life or history. Born in Salisbury, England, he received only a nominal education, and by age fourteen he had sailed to China and the East Indies for the East India Company. The same wanderlust eventually brought him, ten years later, to the United States. Having made the acquaintance of a prominent bookseller, he was hired to translate the works of American writers like Charles Brockden Brown into French. Not long after, he turned to writing his own material.
His first two novels, The Farmer of New-Jersey (1800) and The Wanderings of William (1801), were not successful. Ever resilient, however, Davis correctly gauged the hunger of European audiences for travelogues of the new world. His book Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States, published in 1803, was not only a travel memoir but a consideration of the character and development of the young United States. The book soon became a bestseller. Spurred on by its success, Davis wrote a historical romance about a presumed relationship between Jamestown settler Captain John Smith and the Indian princess Pocahontas, who saved Smith’s life. Borrowing heavily from earlier sources, Davis’s The First Settlers of Virginia: An Historical Novel was published in 1805 to great success. He followed later in the same year with The Post-Captain: Or, the Wooden Walls Well Manned, an adventurous tale of the sea.
Despite the great success of these early books, however, Davis was not able to make a lucrative living at writing and turned to teaching, initially in Philadelphia and later in New York. Eventually frustrated with his financial problems, Davis returned to England in 1817, where he soon married and eventually fathered two daughters. In 1822 he published an epic poem about sea-faring American adventurers, The American Mariners: Or, The Atlantic Voyage. The poem’s love for the American spirit clearly showed the author’s own affection for the continent he left behind. Not long after the publication of his lengthy poem, Davis and his family moved to Winchester, where he became a bookseller. Although he wrote more lengthy poems and at least one more novel much later in his life, his reputation is almost entirely founded on his first two successful books about the America he loved.